Postal worker with inhalation anthrax said to be doing well

Published: Monday, October 22, 2001

LAURA MECKLERAssociated Press Writer

WASHINGTON {AP} Health officials are awaiting test results from five patients who have symptoms consistent with anthrax after a local postal worker was diagnosed with a rare and lethal form of the disease.

More than 2,200 postal employees were being tested for exposure to the disease, and the Postal Service closed two facilities where the sick man worked.

The man, who was not identified, was in serious but stable condition at a suburban Virginia hospital near his home, officials said Monday.

"We're hearing a good prognosis but the next 24 hours are critical," Postmaster General John Potter said on NBC's "Today" program.

Potter said the U.S. Postal Service was increasing security at its facilities and beginning to introduce technology that can sanitize mail. But he said postal workers were not being ordered to wear gloves and face masks.

Authorities were watching five other people in the area who have flu-like symptoms that can indicate inhalation anthrax, said Dr. Ivan Walks, the city's chief health officer. The five are hospitalized and receiving treatment  four in Washington and one in suburban Virginia, he said.

Potter indicated that the five others were also postal employees.

"Initial tests are negative" on the first of the five to be tested. "The other employees are being tested as we speak," he said.

Walks said authorities may know as early as Monday if any of them are infected with the potentially deadly bacterium. But he added that anthrax cannot be ruled out for at least 72 hours after a blood culture is taken.

Over the last 2 1/2 weeks three men, including one who died, have been diagnosed with inhalation anthrax, a disease not seen in this country since 1978. Six others, including two postal workers in New Jersey, have been infected with a highly treatable form of anthrax that is contracted through the skin.

Health and postal officials said they do not know how the Washington postal worker came into contact with enough anthrax to allow the bacteria to travel into his respiratory system and lodge deep in his lungs.

Meantime, congressional leaders planned to reopen the Capitol on Monday, although House and Senate office buildings will remain closed until results from environmental testing are complete.

The closures were prompted by an anthrax-tainted letter that arrived a week ago at Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office. It was processed at Washington's central mail-processing facility where the latest victim worked.

Officials said, however, they did not know whether the worker came into contact with the letter or whether there might have been other tainted letters that have yet to be discovered.

The man first developed flu-like symptoms in the middle of last week but did not feel ill enough to go to the hospital until Friday. Sick with fever and chest pain, he was immediately given Cipro and other antibiotics, but health officials did not know whether they began treatment early enough to save his life.

Surgeon General David Satcher said inhalation anthrax has been fatal about 80 percent of the time. "But that's in the past. We have different technology today," he said on CNN's "Late Edition. "It is not yet hopeless."

Health investigators moved quickly to determine whether anthrax was present in either of two postal facilities where the man worked and whether other employees might have been exposed.

More than 2,100 workers at Washington's main mail-processing center and 150 at an air mail-handling center near Baltimore-Washington International Airport were asked to report for nasal swab testing, which will help determine where in the buildings exposure may have occurred. Employees will each be given a 10-day supply of antibiotics to ward off infection in case they were exposed.

Some 1,000 workers were tested Sunday.

Officials also planned extensive environmental testing at both facilities. They will use the results, along with nasal swab testing, to determine which workers need a full course of preventive antibiotics.

"I feel like I'm all right," said Larry Bagley, who works near the hospitalized worker and was lined up for testing Sunday. "I have faith in God and the Cipro."

The victim worked in a small room and did not typically come into contact with the large mail-sorting machines, said Deborah Willhite, a senior vice president of the Postal Service.

After the Daschle letter was discovered, the Postal Service hired independent contractors to test the Washington facility for anthrax. Officials still were awaiting the results, Willhite said.

Both facilities will be closed until testing and cleaning can be completed, she said.

On Capitol Hill, an environmental sweep through 19 buildings continued Sunday. Investigators have found traces of anthrax in four of them, and 28 people have tested positive for exposure, though none has been diagnosed with the disease.

Last week, the House shut down operations for the first time in history to allow for the sweep. The Senate remained open for a day, causing a rift between the two chambers.

House leaders were looking at Fort McNair, a military installation near Capitol Hill, as an alternate location for Congress to meet if the Capitol could not be reopened, said an official who spoke on condition of anonymity.